Welker's last-gasp punt return sparks Red Raiders' win

COLLEGE STATION  Right before his big home-run punt return Saturday at Texas A&M, Wes Welker was asked a serious question by his coach, Manny Matsakis.

Matsakis, Texas Tech's special teams coach, walked over to him on the sideline in the fourth quarter and said, "Do you want this?"

Welker, feeling tired and cramped, didn't flinch.

"Yeah, I want it," Welker said.

He then walked onto the field, received the A&M punt, cut across midfield, raced down the right sideline and scored a touchdown to spark Tech toward a 48-47 overtime win Saturday at Kyle Field.

His touchdown put Tech on top for the first time all game at 38-35 with two minutes, 48 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Welker also caught 10 passes for a team-high 120 yards and one touchdown. On special teams, he returned six punts for 166 yards, including his 88-yard punt return for a score. The punt return for a touchdown was the fifth of his career and second of the season.

"I was cramping up a little bit, but I just tried to fight through," said Welker, a junior receiver from Oklahoma City. "You just have to fight through that a little bit and hope to celebrate in the end."

The punt return marked one of three he nearly broke for scores Saturday on a busy, hot day for Welker against the Aggies.

Welker had a 20-yard return in the second quarter in which A&M punter Cody Scates was the last guy he needed to beat to break himself open. Scates brought Welker down at the Tech 48-yard line on the play to stop the threat.

After halftime, Welker returned another Scates punt 31 yards to the A&M 46-yard line.

By the time he reached the fourth quarter, Matsakis was wondering if Welker had any firepower left. He was cramping and getting tired.

"I was ready to put Nehemiah (Glover) in if I had to in place of Wes," Matsakis said. "I wasn't sure if he had enough gas left in his tank. We knew it was a touchdown. We thought we could get it."

Matsakis was so convinced of his strategic surety on the next punt return that he told head coach Mike Leach over the headphones, "Get the two-point play ready because we're going to score."

The reason for his confidence was a blocking scheme. Earlier in the game, Matsakis noticed something that could have sprung Welker free. If Glover had blocked his assignment (Scates) on a previous return, Welker likely would have scored at least one more.

"Nehemiah missed that block; that's how we knew to do it," Matsakis said. "We did a different return to set that one up."

The big difference on the touchdown return was Glover. This time he was there to knock Scates out, springing Welker downfield for the score.

"From there it was a footrace," Welker said. "The blocks were there, and that's pretty much the main thing."

The blocks were supplied by a wall-like scheme that Welker ran behind down the Tech sideline. The Red Raiders double-teamed A&M's outside blockers and forced Scates to punt to Welker instead of angling it away from him.

"The way their protection was set up, they didn't have a choice unless they were going to kick it out of bounds," Matsakis said.

Welker was mobbed by teammates afterward on a play likely to go down in Tech history as one of the biggest in the 61-year-old series with A&M. It was the spark Tech needed to carry out a comeback win after falling into a 35-17 deficit in the fourth quarter.

Not bad for a 5-foot-9 player nobody else wanted to recruit in February 2000.

"He's an amazing, amazing player," Tech quarterback Kliff Kingsbury said. "(From the looks of him,), he should be at a fraternity just hanging out. I've never seen anybody like him."